Time to beat up on New Jersey again: Trump tax cuts edition

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who previously spent time working for a "spin shop" that helped bail out Wall Street and AIG, is now trying to create a taxpayer-funded Washington bailout fund of his own – this time, to protect his political future and the elites that benefit from it.

Gottheimer's proposal isn't new. It's akin to what has already been proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is up for re-election in New York, as well as California Senate president pro tem Kevin de Leon, who is desperate for a big political win to unseat incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein this year. However, the Gottheimer case study without question reveals the hypocrisy and self-serving motives of these Democrats better than the rest.

The sweat is finally starting to drip from the faces of the tax relief-detractors up for re-election, but Gottheimer, dealing with one of 2018's most high-profile congressional races, is likely sweating much more than his colleagues.

Steve Lonegan, a well known fiscal conservative running against the incumbent in a Republican-leaning, NRCC-targeted district, is not letting Gottheimer live his anti-middle-class tax relief vote down. According to Lonegan, Gottheimer voted against a tax bill that will increase middle-class New Jersey families' incomes by 15 percent more than the United States' average.

Anxiety about November is likely why Gottheimer joined Governor-Elect Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) at a January 5 "tax reform" event, where he took the lead in introducing their new "tax cut plan." Contrary to what Gottheimer said at the event, what the plan will really do is have federal taxpayers pay handsomely for nothing more than a Democrat talking point, which will be used to bail them out come November.

As you likely already know, Congress's tax cut bill capped the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT) at $10,000. This move shouldn't have been controversial. After all, shouldn't paying for state taxes be a state, not federal, responsibility?

But those representing the far left – such as Gottheimer, Cuomo, and de Leon – don't want their states to lower taxes. Their big plan, as detailed by Gottheimer last Friday, is to create municipal charitable trusts for their constituents to support come property tax time. The reason is so their high-tax states can receive close to fully matching federal funds through the federal charitable deduction. This would give the appearance of a tax cut, but nothing is free. Some taxpayers are going to have to pay for it.

The funds provided to the charitable trusts will go toward funding their states' bloated local governments, just as regular taxes would. This is pure exploitation of federal law and may violate IRS regulations.

Their idea is not only unethical; it's pure hypocrisy. Democrats spent years complaining about "tax loopholes," and now they're creating one of their own. Democrats spent the last few months complaining about how Congress's tax bill will allegedly add to the deficit – in fact, Gottheimer even did so in his Friday speech – and now they're introducing proposals that will, according to their own logic, raise it even more.

Congress created this new cap on SALT with the goal of achieving local fiscal responsibility, and immediately after the bill's passage, that's exactly what appeared would happen. In fact, in New Jersey, a bipartisan group of state senators quickly proposed making property taxes entirely deductible on the state level – a move that's sorely needed in the state that has the highest property taxes in the nation. These fiscally conservative ideas should not stop because of a few extremist Democrats obstructing the process.

Thankfully, the federal government is poised to crack down on these ridiculous proposals. The same day Gottheimer unveiled New Jersey's plan, top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn did not speak favorably about faux solutions like this one and the ones similar to it in California and New York. He even insinuated that the White House will inevitably block them.

This is great news. The federal government cannot allow Washington's coffers to turn into a bailout fund for liberal Democrats' political futures.

As it stands now, middle-income Americans are set to receive the biggest win they've had in several decades. That should not change to protect a few crony congressmen, who were willing to hold the whole process hostage just to safeguard the wealthy's pocketbooks.

It's time to drain the swamp, not expand it. Instead of the White House changing its tune, the far left should join the choir.

Edward Woodson is a lawyer and host of The Edward Woodson Show.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who previously spent time working for a "spin shop" that helped bail out Wall Street and AIG, is now trying to create a taxpayer-funded Washington bailout fund of his own – this time, to protect his political future and the elites that benefit from it.

Gottheimer's proposal isn't new. It's akin to what has already been proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is up for re-election in New York, as well as California Senate president pro tem Kevin de Leon, who is desperate for a big political win to unseat incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein this year. However, the Gottheimer case study without question reveals the hypocrisy and self-serving motives of these Democrats better than the rest.

The sweat is finally starting to drip from the faces of the tax relief-detractors up for re-election, but Gottheimer, dealing with one of 2018's most high-profile congressional races, is likely sweating much more than his colleagues.

Steve Lonegan, a well known fiscal conservative running against the incumbent in a Republican-leaning, NRCC-targeted district, is not letting Gottheimer live his anti-middle-class tax relief vote down. According to Lonegan, Gottheimer voted against a tax bill that will increase middle-class New Jersey families' incomes by 15 percent more than the United States' average.

Anxiety about November is likely why Gottheimer joined Governor-Elect Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) at a January 5 "tax reform" event, where he took the lead in introducing their new "tax cut plan." Contrary to what Gottheimer said at the event, what the plan will really do is have federal taxpayers pay handsomely for nothing more than a Democrat talking point, which will be used to bail them out come November.

As you likely already know, Congress's tax cut bill capped the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT) at $10,000. This move shouldn't have been controversial. After all, shouldn't paying for state taxes be a state, not federal, responsibility?

But those representing the far left – such as Gottheimer, Cuomo, and de Leon – don't want their states to lower taxes. Their big plan, as detailed by Gottheimer last Friday, is to create municipal charitable trusts for their constituents to support come property tax time. The reason is so their high-tax states can receive close to fully matching federal funds through the federal charitable deduction. This would give the appearance of a tax cut, but nothing is free. Some taxpayers are going to have to pay for it.

The funds provided to the charitable trusts will go toward funding their states' bloated local governments, just as regular taxes would. This is pure exploitation of federal law and may violate IRS regulations.

Their idea is not only unethical; it's pure hypocrisy. Democrats spent years complaining about "tax loopholes," and now they're creating one of their own. Democrats spent the last few months complaining about how Congress's tax bill will allegedly add to the deficit – in fact, Gottheimer even did so in his Friday speech – and now they're introducing proposals that will, according to their own logic, raise it even more.

Congress created this new cap on SALT with the goal of achieving local fiscal responsibility, and immediately after the bill's passage, that's exactly what appeared would happen. In fact, in New Jersey, a bipartisan group of state senators quickly proposed making property taxes entirely deductible on the state level – a move that's sorely needed in the state that has the highest property taxes in the nation. These fiscally conservative ideas should not stop because of a few extremist Democrats obstructing the process.

Thankfully, the federal government is poised to crack down on these ridiculous proposals. The same day Gottheimer unveiled New Jersey's plan, top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn did not speak favorably about faux solutions like this one and the ones similar to it in California and New York. He even insinuated that the White House will inevitably block them.

This is great news. The federal government cannot allow Washington's coffers to turn into a bailout fund for liberal Democrats' political futures.

As it stands now, middle-income Americans are set to receive the biggest win they've had in several decades. That should not change to protect a few crony congressmen, who were willing to hold the whole process hostage just to safeguard the wealthy's pocketbooks.

It's time to drain the swamp, not expand it. Instead of the White House changing its tune, the far left should join the choir.